Fields Project

The purpose of this project was to design a realistic, real-life athletic field setup utilizing understanding of geometric constructions for ECHS. This was a three-part project which required the assembly of a scale model of the proposed fields, a PowerPoint presentation on labor, costs, and supplies, and a proposal to the Coastline Board of Directors. Ultimately, one of the models created by student would be chosen to be created for ECHSís students.

The skills required for this project were mainly in the area of compass and straightedge usage. Students had to use only a compass and straightedge to recreate the entire field in scale, then diagram their proposed design on that scale model. Vital to the maintenance of proper scale on the model was the ability to properly calculate proportions.

In real life, this project is similar in many aspects to the everyday careers of the people who design our city, design our schools, and design our homes. Constructions and proportions are used everyday by architects and engineers to construct blueprints of the millions of objects they design for people to use.

This project taught me the importance of accuracy and concentration on when doing constructions. Exercising my knowledge of constructions secured the concepts in my mind permanently embedding the techniques necessary to utilize compass and ruler for proper scaling. This will also help me in the future, as I plan to be an engineer, and I in my turn will need to use these skills again.

Completed: November 15th, 2007

Town Project

The town projectís goal was to study the concept of perpendicular bisectors and to utilize them to zone a town for different pizza parlors. By using perpendicular bisectors, approximately equal zones were created to segment the town into sectors for each parlor. Five pizza parlors were the minimum requirement, though some had more, as I did, to add to the complexity of the project.

To complete this project, many skills were required. First and foremost was the ability to execute constructions with compass and ruler to create perpendicular bisectors. With a bit of thought, everybody figured out how to use perpendicular bisectors to zone the town. By drawing segments between parlors, then drawing perpendicular bisectors on these segments one was able to create the zones for each parlor. One also had to know how to draw parallel lines, perpendicular lines, and several simple polygons, as these were required to illustrate streets.

This projectís principles could be used in real life to sector cities for different civil services. Police stations, firehouses, schools, and hospitals could use these techniques to zoning cities into respective areas for each epicenter of work.

This project taught me the many different uses of perpendicular bisectors. I also learned that perpendicular bisectors are extremely good division makers. It is easy to separate items into sections for representative locations.

Completed: December 2007

Kite Project

In the kite project, there were three sections. The first section was to research different types of kites and what their purposes and characteristics were. In the second section, groups researched the history of kites and their history of uses among people. The last and final section of the project was to construct a kite by hand. Picking one style of kite, groups had to be extremely careful in symmetry.

This project required good knowledge of polygons, angles, and symmetry. Symmetry was extremely important for asymmetrical kites would be unstable and not be able to fly right. Polygons had to be congruent on each side of the kite, like a mirror. If polygons were not congruent, then the kite would be asymmetrical. The chief problem was to maintain symmetry in the angles.

In real life, kite builders have to maintain symmetry wherever possible. In their jobs, they must be extremely careful to maintain excellence in their work. This also applies to factories which construct kite for mass production. Machines must be well calibrated or slight asymmetries will wreck their work.

This project was great for securing the topics of symmetry and polygons in my mind. I will never forget them. Because of the way the kite required extreme care, in construction, I am now well practiced in the topics covered by this project.

Completed: April 2008

Rice Project

The rice project was a complicated project which tested our problem solving skills. We had to use problem solving skills to calculate rice pieces on the problem of the kingís chessboard. Then, we had to use proportion skills to calculate volumes for cylinders and cubes. Patterns were essential to try to solve the problem with less difficulty.

Most of the skills required for this project were word problem solving skills. Other skills required were logic and reasoning, or else we would be unable to solve the chessboardís mystery.

In real life, these topics would be similar to logistical problems found in real life businessí which need to solve problems about material supplies. This is essentially saying math is related to real life, which is true. Math is infatuated into every part of real life, and every personís life.

For this project, I learned, or rather reinforced my studies of different topics like conjectures. It was of paramount concern to maintain accuracy. Because of the sheer size of the numbers one had to be extremely careful.